LONDON - A
UN panel convened to examine Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla is
already
displaying its lack of teeth and shows that it will fail to meet the
Security
Council's demand for a ‘prompt,
impartial, credible and transparent investigation',
says the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

UN
spokesperson Martin Nesirky has admitted that the panel has no power to
compel
anyone to appear and testify before it.

His statement
followed Israel's insistence that it would
refuse to co-operate with the panel if it called IDF soldiers who took
part in
the attack as witnesses.

Sarah Colborne,
director of campaigns and operations at PSC, who was
on board the lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, said: ‘Any inquiry which
fails to
examine all the evidence - including the Israeli military involved and
the
passengers on board, will lack credibility. All photographic and video
evidence
still being held by Israel, which was illegally seized
from the passengers on board, must be released.'

‘Why does Israel
want to shield its soldiers
from a UN inquiry? The peace activists who sailed on the flotilla have
absolutely nothing to hide and, unlike Israel, do not fear an honest
investigation into what happened that night.

‘Our flotilla,
carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, was attacked in
international waters by Israeli troops, who killed nine peace activists
and
wounded more than 50. We had no arms on board - we were civilians, aged
from one
to 89 years old, on a humanitarian mission. All boats had been
thoroughly
checked at their ports of departure. Yet we were shot at with lethal
weaponry,
held hostage and all our evidence of Israel's crimes was seized from us.

The Fourth Geneva Convention says Israel must allow humanitarian aid
into Gaza. Its siege on
Gaza is illegal
- and its lethal attack on the flotilla was illegal'.

Ms
Colborne also said the inquiry's remit to ‘examine and identify the
facts,
circumstances and the context of the incident, as well as to recommend
ways to
avoid future incident'* did not go far enough.

She said: ‘The UN should
abandon
a panel which is already showing itself to be ineffective, and hold a
robust
investigation with the power to compel witnesses to attend, which
assigns
criminal responsibility for what happened that night.

‘The UN should also act to
stop
Israel laying siege to
Gaza, and end Israel's
continual violations of international law.'

Campaigners would not be
deterred from
taking aid to Gaza, said Ms Colborne: ‘We will be
continuing to break the blockade by land and sea. We will not sit by and
watch
1.5 million Palestinians suffer from the humanitarian disaster that
Israel has created in
Gaza'.

###

PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political
organisation with members from many communities across Britain, and
increasingly throughout the world. PSC represents people in Britain from
all faiths and political parties, who have come together to work for
peace and justice for the Palestinian people. PSC is opposed to all
forms of racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice.

Further

With the toxic Bibi circus in town - cue talk of "tentacles of terror" - find hope in the extraordinary Combatants For Peace, a joint effort by weary Israeli and Palestinian veterans of violence who've laid down their guns to fight for peace. Led by a former IDF soldier and Fatah militant who both lost daughters to the conflict's "unrightable wrongs," they insist on the need to "hear what is painful" and talk to your 'enemies': "Partners for peace always exist. You only have to look for them."